Thursday, July 25, 2013

12 Miler

Finally getting around to writing about my long run from last week-a 12-miler, my longest....maybe ever. I got up at 4am on Saturday and ate a peanut butter sandwich, and then went back to bed til 6. Then I got up, got myself outfitted, and hit the road. It was not too bad! I timed my water and gels right-gels at 4 and 8 miles, and I stopped at about 10 at a gas station to pick up a Gatorade. The cashier seemed thrilled to come into contact with an ultra-sweaty customer.

The only issue I had was running too far-I had it mapped out to end up about a quarter mile from home, and walk the rest. To do that, I had to make a turn at 7.5 miles, but my app is set up to notify me at mile breaks. After 7 miles I tried to keep an eye on it, but I got distracted by the marathon and half marathon training groups.

Richmond has a big marathon in November, and they do training groups for it, which I think is great if you need that social outlet and support. Personally, running is my alone time. I put on a podcast (or not) and I set out on my own for a few hours. But I don't judge what works for you, and generally runners are pretty courteous to each other. I get lots of smiles and waves and hellos. The worst thing I usually run into is runners taking up the whole sidewalk, and talking to each other so they're not paying attention to the person (me) coming towards them, thus forcing me into the grass or road. Even that minor thing I can deal with.

But Saturday I had another issue. I was about to cross a road, and there was a group running perpendicular to me, a bit ahead, so they were crossing my path. I didn't look directly at them, but I could see where they were and I had plenty of room to cross. Their group leader was also a very loud, very small woman, so they were hard to miss because she was yelling. So I cross in front of them, with a good six feet between their leader and me. There was never any danger of collision.

But still, leader lady gives me a cross "BE CAREFUL." It was totally unnecessary. As I kept running, I kept thinking about it, and it kept pissing me off more and more. Basically because I could tell what kind of woman she was. If you were in her class at school, she was the group leader who emailed you twenty times a day and wanted to meet at 10am on a Tuesday. She's the friend who feels like she has to pick apart the waiter at dinner. And she's the running coach who feels like she needs a bullhorn to show she's boss. Bitch, this is a public sidewalk and I'll run where I please. Oh, and by the way, she was five foot nothing, maybe 100lbs. Go ahead, sugar, run into me and see which one of us falls down.

Anyway, I got distracted thinking about punching her, and before I knew it, I was at 8 miles, and ended up a mile from home when I was done with my 12. Luckily the boys came to pick me up, because I was beat to hell. Henry's comment was "Mom, you're all sweaty!" Indeed I was. And this weekend's 14 miler promises to be even more fun.

Three weeks to go til my first half marathon. Pulling this off is going to be a pretty big morale boost at this point in my life, and I'm looking forward to it.

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About Me

This started as a mom blog that I was doing to stave off boredom for the three months I was home on maternity leave, morphed into a page I bitched on once a month after I went back to work, and is now in its third incarnation:
Blog tracking single mom as she navigates divorce, single parenthood, potential dating, and other hilarious and simultaneously depressing topics. But in a funny way!